I'm Chris, this is the downtime podcast and you're tuned into our Monson and pre-race show with Chris Kilmurray.

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difference to us and helps us get through this season and through the winter into next year. It's been a rough year in many ways to be involved in the bike industry, but the support of our listeners has been a real highlight for me and has genuinely helped us keep this thing going. All right, it's the final round of the year and we're headed to the iconic Monson Ann. We dig into the challenges of this unique track, the differences and similarities to Lake Placid,

as well as who to watch in the upcoming battles as multiple overalls go to the wire.

So sit back, hit play and listen to this Monson Ann pre-race show with Chris Kill Murray.

Chris Kilmurray, welcome back, Monsanam, pre-race show. And the last pre-race show, the year, man, like, I've sort of been willing it to come because it's been a long season. And now it's here, I'm sad about it. Yeah, it's exactly the way it's always going to be. Just like the races, I think, a lot of them are delighted that this is the last race, but then some of them are like, oh, I've found some momentum, I've found some skills, I've found some happiness, I found a good setting or whatever it is, you know, so it's always kind of bittersweet and it's always a double-edged sword, the beginning of the end. yeah it has man of the beginning, maybe. Yeah, before we get stuck into Montan,

and then just reflect back on Lake Placid or Whiteface Mountain,

whatever we want to call it, like a very different challenge presented to anything we've had for a wee while on the World Cup circuit.

Yeah, interesting was the word. The track was beautiful when we arrived fresh written by about the grand

total of five people of five times each so do the mats on that we knew was going to get chopped up

and you knew just from your first footsteps on side of the bottom in the pits that the soil was

quite sandy and when you track walked you knew straight away

that it was even sandier than expected something the kind of soil we've just never really had at a

European World Cup before or a North American World Cup really um the closest thing to the soil

we got here in Whiteface was actually the the dirt they brought into Valde Soli in 2021 to patch up the track which didn't come from that hill came from a different hill came from a sand quarry somewhere and that was the closest thing in texture and color so that was kind of what we were joking about early in the week and we were joking that at least it's not as kind of steep and gnarly and rough as Valasoli but it turned out in the end to be a challenge that was kind of unique and not more difficult in Valisoli or those other tracks, but just it's not as kind of steep and nary and rough as Valasoli, but it turned out in the end to be a challenge that was kind of unique.

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